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Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

· Yahoo Sports

—Spread check (Miami): Louisville by 1.5

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—NET Rankings Update (men’s): No. 15

—NET Rankings Update (women’s): No. 13

—The Louisville women’s basketball team kicks off postseason play at 5 p.m. with an ACC Tournament quarterfinal game against 7th-seeded Syracuse. ESPN2 will have the television coverage. Here’s a preview.

—It’s the most important month of the 2025-26 college basketball season, but behind closed doors, conversations about roster assembly for the 2026-27 season are already in full swing.

Among the big questions that schools face is whether to begin contract negotiations with potential returning players for next year during the season or wait until after. Some schools heavily value the certainty of locking a player into a new contract early, giving them roster certainty that informs how they attack the portal. Others fear negotiations, even if primarily being done with an agent rather than the player themselves, could impact a player’s psyche. 

“These aren’t the types of conversations that you can have with some and not have with all, because it’s going to mess up your locker room,” GM No. 1 says. “It’s going to get out, so you have to be strategic about when and where you have those conversations and the safe play is to wait until that buzzer sounds.”

“Ultimately, I think the players that are going to leave know they’re going to leave … so it doesn’t really need to get talked about in my opinion,” GM No. 3 says. “And for the kids that you do want back, they would also know you want them back. It’s kind of unspoken. So to me, why would I set the market early on a kid?”

In many ways, that’s the most critical push and pull: Schools want to avoid putting their cards on the table as long as possible, while agents want to create as many options for their clients as possible at this time of year to create leverage for a stronger offer, even if they plan on returning to their current school.

“You have conversations going on and you have to know damn well that the presentation you’re getting for your own player [from his agent] is going to 10 other schools,” GM No. 2 said. 

And increasingly, that leverage means that players (or their representatives) have a pretty good idea of where they’re headed well before they ever enter the portal, something that could be exacerbated by the later April 7 portal opening date. The front office staffers SI spoke to were skeptical that many if any portal deals are already done, but some could in the lead-up to the portal opening and if nothing else, players will often enter the portal with a handful of options already lined up and money discussed. This is in spite of the fact that the NCAA has attempted to crack down on tampering, sending a memo last week that reminded schools that even communicating with a player’s agent before they enter the portal is against NCAA rules. 

“I think the general consensus is that, and I’m not saying this is the way it should be, but I think that most guys by the time they enter the portal will have a shortlist of three to five schools and a good market range of what those schools will offer,” GM No. 2 says.

—Here’s a good NBA Draft scouting report on Ryan Conwell, which also does a good job at breaking down the strengths and weaknesses he’s displayed thus far this season at U of L.

—Lorenzo Mauldin, who just last month signed with the UFL’s Louisville Kings, has now announced his retirement from football.

—State of Louisville previews this weekend’s baseball series against Seton Hall.

—Cool video here of Mikel Brown Jr. making a young Cardinal fan’s year.

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—Reece Gaines earned a Coach of the Year nod for his work this season at Saint Mary’s Hall in San Antonio.

—ESPN has Lincoln Kienholz all the way down at No. 53 in its pre-spring ranking of all 68 power conference quarterbacks.

53. Lincoln Kienholz, Louisville Cardinals

2025 stat line (Ohio State): 95.0 QBR, 139 passing yards, one TD, zero INTs, 78.6% completion rate, 12.6 yards per completion; 66 non-sack rushing yards, two TDs

Kienholz was a garbage-time delight at Ohio State last season, but if he holds off freshman Briggs Cherry and West Georgia transfer Davin Wydner for the starting job, he’ll earn the first real snaps of his career. He’s a mobile guy with at least short-range accuracy. There are some fun weapons in Jeff Brohm’s latest enormous transfer haul, but we’ll see what kind of upside Kienholz can bring to the table.

—Cardinal Authority looks at where the men’s basketball team currently sits in the various Bracketology projections. Almost everyone still has the Cards as a 6-seed, with some dropping them to the 7 line.

—If Louisville loses, it’d better hope that either NC State or Florida State loses too. If they don’t, the Cards get the worst draw imaginable for the ACC Tournament.

—The ACC has flipped tip times for the tournament this year to ensure that both Duke and North Carolina can play in prime time (weird that they didn’t do the same thing for the women’s tournament, where Duke is the No. 1 seed and had to play its quarterfinal game at 11 a.m.).

If Louisville earns the 6 or the 7-seed, they’ll play an afternoon game next Wednesday.

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—Wade Houston’s son-in-law is at the center of a child sex abuse case.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic thinks Miami tops the Cards by 6 tomorrow afternoon.

—Sacred Heart and Assumption will meet in the girls 7th Region championship game, while Bullitt East and PRP will duke it out for the 6th Region crown.

—Lehigh’s halfcourt buzzer-beater in the Patriot League quarterfinals gave us the best moment of March so far.

—If that wasn’t the best moment of March so far, then it has to be this:

—Mitch Barnhart’s golden parachute at UK has pissed off pretty much everyone in Lexington. As it should.

—Police say a coach on the Cal State Bakersfield men’s basketball program was moonlighting as a pimp across four states. This is March.

—Earlier this week, U of L president Gerry Bradley, athletic director Josh Heird, and board chair Larry Benz published a white paper outlining three major changes they believe need to be made to save college sports. You can read the paper here.

—When you didn’t bother to read the assignment but still try to write the paper, this is what happens.

—Lou City kicks off its 2026 campaign tonight at rival Lexington SC.

—Miami is eyeing a 6-seed in the Big Dance, but knows it needs a win over Louisville tomorrow afternoon to get there.

—“Desperation, nastiness and toughness” got Vangelis Zougris into Louisville’s starting lineup.

—This is a nutso stat.

—Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician has some takeaways from Syracuse’s Tuesday night loss at Louisville.

—The Athletic’s latest NBA mock draft has Mikel Brown Jr. going 8th overall, but notes that he could move up the board with a strong finish to his freshman season.

—After taking down Jacksonville in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Tournament on Wednesday, Bellarmine head coach Doug Davenport saw his first year as the front man for the Knights come to an end with a loss to top-seeded Central Arkansas Friday afternoon.

—Spencer Legg and teammates Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely and Adrian Wooley will be hosting an event on Sunday to continue to raise awareness about the type-I diabetes community.

—TNIAAM previews this afternoon/evening’s ACC quarterfinal matchup between Louisville and Syracuse.

—The Mike Rutherford Show is wrapping up the week at Molly Malone’s in the Highlands from 2:30-5:30 this afternoon. Stop by and see us.

—And finally, beat Syracuse, then beat Miami.

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